Solar Eclipse
by Christemo
Summary: Kotomine Shirou has, since he was first saved by his adoptive father, felt that he had not done enough. He remembers all too frequently and vividly that grisly inferno from almost a decade ago, and in hopes of preventing such a disaster from happening once more, he enters the Holy Grail War, barely knowing what he is throwing himself into. Rated M for being, you know, Fate.


When the boy came to, there was only fire.

The blazing inferno covered all that was to see in every direction, devouring men and ruined buildings alike. A primitive force that consumed all with no mercy. And yet he laid there at the epicenter, his body burned, but not broken. He still felt a hint of warmth in his limbs. He could move.

The boy, recollection of all he was taken by the fire, slowly took his footing. His movements were stiff and clumsy, but he began to walk regardless. But wherever he went, slow as he was, he found no one. No people, only corpses. Only those still trying to help others still remained, and yet, despite their best efforts, could do naught but perish alongside those they wanted to save.

The child, not even 7 years of age, was unable to help, and helpless himself, and soon, tired legs creaked as they walked with uncertainty towards the last living person he could see; A girl, only a few years younger than himself. Yet as he tried to emulate those brave souls' folly, walking towards her with her salvation in mind, his legs gave out from exhaustion, and he collapsed onto his shins. What little of his mind could be said to function knew that if he fell now, he would never stand back up.

He tried, tried and tried again but his legs did not budge. He tried to crawl forward on his hands, and while he moved, it was far too slow. Yet ignoring his exhaustion, he crawled clumsily. Even as those small, innocent hands took hold of the ground and pushed him forward, burning themselves upon the hot ash and dirt beneath them, he did not stop.

No matter what, he wanted to save this one person.

"_Do you want power?"_

An emotionless and hollow voice rang out in his head, and the child heard it clearly. A voice that promised him power. Power that could be used to save. To save her.

"_If you let me in, just a bit of me, I will give you power. So long as you remain, I will grant you that small wish."_

Anything. He'd do anything for power. To save her. To differ her fate from all those others. With a tiny nod of his small, tired head, he accepted the voice's offer.

"_Then use my power and destroy it. Destroy the fire. To save, you must destroy."_

A warmth filled his limbs, slow and subtle but growing in intensity. With it, he regained his foothold with deliberate, slow motions, and began to limp forward. The fire was still faster than him, however, and he would not make it at this rate.

So he'd destroy it. Destroy and rebuild it. For that purpose, a single word escaped his mouth.

"_Quench."_

The fire approaching him stopped, or rather it didn't. Instead, as it came near him or the girl, it turned to steam, disappearing harmlessly into the air. The fire kept coming, unrelenting in its assault, but all the flames that followed suffered the same fate.

Amazed at his newfound power, he began to walk once more at his slow, limping pace. The girl was still many meters from him, but he was certain he'd make it. He'd save at least this one person.

_Forward…_

_Forward…_

Twenty meters remained between the two. Whatever he had done to the fire help on and defended him and her from all sides against the wrath of nature. He tried to go faster, but his legs were moving as fast as they could already, and yet he barely made a meter every two seconds.

_Forward…._

_Faster..._

Ten meters now. From this distance it was possible to see the sheer terror on her face, yet she kept a deathly silence, having perhaps torn her vocal cords already.

_Please..._

Five meters. He was only a dozen lengthy steps away when he suddenly felt soil and tiny pieces of glass collide with his face. He was walking, was he not? So why did the ground collide with his face just now.

It was only then that he felt it. His legs had given out again, the warmth the voice had given him had been replaced with a deathly cold despite the surrounding fire. His newfound power that held away the fiery death of the outside too had disappeared with.

The fire he had halted so far flooded forth like a river of red and orange once more, and his parched and dry throat could only let out a scream of silence as it consumed the girl, her voice suddenly returning to her as the flames took hold in her clothes, in her skin and in her eyes.

Her screams added to the chorus of the inferno that would never leave his mind. Within minutes, she was reduced to little more than a charred corpse.

Yet as he tried to comprehend the horror before him, and tears that were mere vapor ran down his cheeks, a single question echoed in his mind.

Why was he not burning?

The fire kept a safe distance from him, circling him like a she-lion about to pounce, and yet it never came. It was as if taunting him, the hopeless boy laying with his face in the dirt, letting him simmer in the guilt of his failure before devouring him.

Minutes, hours, days, he did know how much time passed, but they did not come closer. Either he kept them at bay subconsciously with what might be left of his new power, or perhaps it was merely a chance of fate?

But as if time suddenly started again, they died out. He didn't know why, but he felt it, in his mind's eye. Something greater, grander than anything in the world, was coming, and the flames had given way to it's superiority. A great gale from a giant's footstep blew them to ashes as if they were never there to begin with. The boy's eyes followed the sound, and a sight he would've never imagined came before him.

Before him stood the tall man he would come to know as Kotomine Kirei, and by his side, a radiant blonde man wrapped in a sheet of red cloth, staring down at him.

Was it pity? Disgust? Sympathy?

The boy did not know until the brown-haired man knelt down and inspected him. His features were unreadable, as if he was observing the thing he treasured the most in the world and and a meaningless existence at once.

"We will be taking this one with us, Archer." His voice was naturally booming even as its speaker was composed and calm, as it referred to the stranger standing by his side.

"Have you gone mad from being in this place, Kirei? Why waste such effort on one rat when you could simply have it join the others?" Unlike his companion, the golden-haired man spoke at a volume that bordered on shouting, a voice that could not be denied.

"This one is… different. I would imagine that difference is why he has not yet been turned to ashes despite being here. Call it a whim", replied the kneeling man sounding both pleading, bored and yet somehow… _excited_.

"Hmph, do as you wish, but do not expect me to help you groom this brat, nor to refrain from painting the walls with him if he bothers me", the man referred to as Archer scoffed at his companion in a voice that held a size amount of loathing.

"Of course. The responsibility shall lie entirely with me", the one called Kirei said with an enigmatic smirk as he picked up the confused child, holding him in his pair of muscular arms somewhat like a newborn.

The relief of the fire's disappearance washed over the boy, causing his consciousness to slip away, as the adrenaline in him faded, comforted by the arms of the one who would save him, and soon, he was lulled into a gentle sleep as Kirei and his companion began to walk away from the wasteland.

Thus, the life of one Shirou Kotomine began.


End file.
